Yu-Gi-Oh! Neo: Tales of Chaos
by zeropersona
Summary: In the game of duel monsters, there are different types of duelists, those who duel only to win, those who duel for fun and those who just see the game as nothing but children's card game. Follow Zero Furuya as his quest to uncover the secrets of his past pushes him to the dark side of what he thought was a child's game.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this is the second post 5ds fanfic I'm writing [Apparently I like writing stories that happen after the anime]. This fanfic will not include canon characters, or any person associated with them. So basically it's a semi AU fanfic that occurs after the events of 5ds.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I only own my own characters.

**Yu-Gi-Oh! Neo: Tales of Chaos**

Chapter 1 – Prologue

Zero yawned in boredom, looking around the shop. The day had been uneventful and boring... at least to him.

This was inside the shop known as 'Tyler's World', a pretty stupid name if you asked him. Tyler's World was a normal card shop situated in Neo Domino City. It wasn't a very big shop, but it was spacious enough for two duels to be conducted in it simultaneously. The shop had many cards in show glassed and had shelves full of card packs.

Zero was a 14 year old boy with short, rough black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a grey hoodie and black trousers. HIs uncle; Tyler owned the shop and had Zero help him out by working at the counter.

He took his attention from book he was reading to the duel occurring. Apparently every employee who worked at the counter keep themselves busy by reading a book. The finals duel of the shop's tournament was taking place. Many duelists had gathered to watch the duel which was between two people his uncle Tyler considered to be the shop's best duelists.

The first duelist who Zero recognised as Ray Watagami had a machine monster with spider like legs and a face-down card on his field while the other duelist who was James Endo only had two face-down cards on his field.

Ray was a boy who looked about 15 years old; he had large spiky black hair with crimson streaks and wore a black trench coat. He wore a red t-shirt and black trousers under his coat. Ray stretched his hand towards his opponent and spoke, "Ally of Justice Catastor, attack him directly!"

**Ally of Justice Catastor: Lv.5 Atk2200/ Def 1200**

"I don't think so." James responded as one of his face-down cards flipped up. "My trap card; Dimensional Prison will banish your Catastor."

"Turn end." Ray declared, undisturbed by the turn of events.

"My turn, draw." James said as he added a card to his hand, bringing it up to a total of three cards. James looked the same age as Ray; he had smooth black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a blue shirt and black jeans.

"Oh! James' trap has turned the tables! Ray is now at a disadvantage, with no cards in his hand and only a face-down card on his field, how will he cope?" a man who looked in his late twenties commentated with a microphone in his hand. This was Tyler, Zero's uncle.

**Ray's LP: 4000**

**James' LP: 1300**

"This duel is mine for the taking." James said confidently as he placed a card on his duel disk. "I special summon Gilasaurus in attack position!" a brown raptor dinosaur appeared.

**Gilasaurus: Lv.3 Atk-1400/ Def-400**

"When I summon Gilasaurus this way, you get to special summon a monster from your graveyard." James explained.

"I'll special summon Ally Salvo in defense position." A black meteorite like substance appeared. There was purple energy around the monster and it had holes in it.

**Ally Salvo: Lv.2 Atk-400/ Def-300**

"I activate the spell card; Big Evolution Pill!" James said as he inserted a card into his duel disk. "By tributing a dinosaur type monster, this spell lets me summon dinosaur type monsters without tributes for three of your turns."

Gilasaurus faded away as James' spell card appeared.

"I'll use that effect to summon Ultimate Tyranno!" James declared. A large, black Tyrannosaurus appeared, it let out a large roar which was meant to intimidate the opponent.

**Ultimate Tyranno: Atk-3000/ Def-2200**

"Ultimate Tyranno, attack him directly!" James ordered his dinosaur.

"Trap card activate! DNA Transplant!" Ray said as his face-down card flipped up. "This trap card changes the attribute of all monsters on the field to any of my choosing. I choose to change them to light attribute."

"Whatever, it won't stop your monster from being destroyed." James responded.

The large dinosaur rammed the meteor like monster. But before the monster faded away, it let off a burst of energy which incinerated the dinosaur and James' face-down card.

"What the hell just happened?" James asked furiously.

"When Ally Salvo is destroyed in battle by a light attribute monster, I can destroy up two cards on the field." Ray explained, smirking.

"But Ultimate Tyranno isn't a..." James said before realising it was because of the trap Ray activated. "Turn end." He said, gritting his teeth.

"My turn, draw." Ray said as he added a card to his hand. "I summon Ally of Justice Nullifier." A red robot with spider like legs appeared.

**Ally of Justice Nullfier: Lv.4 Atk-1600/ Def-1200**

"Ally of Justice Nullfier, attack and end this duel!" Ray ordered.

"No way." James thought. "I lost without even dealing a point of damage."

The robot stretched its hand towards James and shot a laser beam at him, reducing his life points to zero.

**Ray's LP: 4000**

**James' LP: 0**

"And Ray wins the duel, while accomplishing an impressive feat; taking no damage in the duel." Tyler commentated

Both duelists deactivated their duel disks as the crowd applauded.

"Though the odds were against most of the game, Ray stayed calm and trusted his deck. These made him get through the duel and end up winning flawlessly. I therefore declare him the strongest duelist in this shop!" He then added, "Until the next tournament of course."

Zero turned away to continue reading his book, "Heart of the cards... how pathetic."

"What did you just say?"

Zero looked up, wondering who was speaking so loud. He saw a girl he recognised as Tomoko; James' sister. She was in front of the counter and seemed to be asking him. "Are you talking to me?" he asked.

"Yes, I was." She replied. The girl had long black hair that stopped at her back and blue eyes. She was wearing a red top and a black skirt. "Didn't you just say that believing in the heart of cards is pathetic?"

"What if I did?" he asked back.

"That is stupidest thing I heard."

"What? Asking if I said that?"

"Of course not." She said, looking at Zero as if he were stupid. "You were saying that the belief in the heart of the cards is stupid."

"What you're trying to say is you believe in the heart of the cards and what I supposedly said offended you?" Zero said.

"Yes." She replied. She looked like she was going to continue talking until Zero spoke.

Zero went back to reading his book before talking, "To end this conversation, I'll just answer the question; I didn't say anything."

"Whatever." Tomoko shrugged it off. "Do you want to duel?"

"Nah." Zero replied, not even bothering to look up.

"Oh c'mon, just an old fashioned table-top duel right here."

"Even if I wanted to, I don't have a deck." Zero replied. "Besides, shouldn't you be consoling your brother?"

Tomoko looked at her brother who was sitting at a corner of the shop with his head hung. She sighed and then left the counter to console him.

"The price for first place is five free card packs of your choosing and a new, customized D-pad and D-gazer." Tyler announced, handing said gifts to Ray while the crowd applauded.

"Zero, let's go." Tyler called his nephew. The shop was empty as it was 7 o'clock, Tyler and Zero were about leaving.

"I'm already here." Zero replied as he came out of the shop. He was about 5'4", which was short in his own opinion. He and his uncle started walking, their house was some blocks away so a car would have been unnecessary.

Zero had been living with his uncle since he was 9, having lived in an orphanage before then. He didn't know what happened to his parents and each time he asked his uncle, he would get no reply. After some time he just learnt to live without that knowledge. But he promised himself that if he had the chance he would search for his parents.

...but one will find out that sometimes...ignorance is indeed bliss...

I shall be writing this story alongside my 5dsacademy story. The prologue is a bit shorter than I wanted, but the next chapter will be longer. Please read and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I only own my characters and the plot.

Chapter 2 – Duel Therapy

"Ahem." A woman in corporate dressing said, in an attempt to silence the chattering students. The students got the message and stopped talking.

This was Mizushima junior high school in Neo Domino city. Zero was quietly sitting down in his seat, dressed in the school uniform. He was looking through the window at nothing in particular, staring into space being a habit of his.

"You are all welcome back from the mid-term break." The woman said after the class was quiet. "Before we start the class, I will like to introduce a new student." She gestured to the door and a girl walked.

The girl had crimson hair that stopped at her shoulders and brown eyes. The girl was wearing the school uniform; a white shirt and red blazer over a black skirt, or in the boys' case trousers. She had a petite figure and was quite cute and that was earning her looks and whispers from the students, mostly the boys.

"Her name is Akiko Mikami." The teacher continued. "She transferred here from Neo Domino Junior High. I expect you all to treat her kindly." The teacher then turned to the girl, "You can have your seat now."

The girl took a seat at the back of the class, next to Tomoko. Zero, meanwhile was wondering why anyone would transfer from a school as prestigious as new domino. 'Bah, it doesn't even concern me.' He thought, shrugging it off.

The rest of school had gone normally for Zero who was leaving the school. Looking around, he saw that majority of the students were engaged in some activity or the order.

"Hey!" someone yelled.

"Hey! You!" the person yelled again. Zero stopped walking and looked around, squinting his eyes to find out who was shouting obnoxiously.

"I'm right behind you!" the person said.

Zero covered his ears and turned round to see the person. It was Tomoko who had been shouting. "Why are you so loud?" he asked rubbing his ears.

"What do you mean?" Tomoko asked feeling offended. "I was just calling you."

"Ok. What might you want?" Zero asked, before noticing that the new student; Akiko was next to the girl.

"I just wanted to ask you if you've seen James." She asked.

"No, I haven't." Zero replied. "Come to think of it he wasn't even in school today."

"Yeah." She replied. "Wait, I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Tomoko and this is my cousin; Akiko."

"Well, I'm Zero."

"Please, could you tell me if you find him at the shop?" Tomoko asked.

"Sure." Zero said.

"Thank you." She said left, dragging Akiko along with her.

Zero had walked for some time before realising something. 'She didn't even tell me how to contact her.' He thought. 'I probably won't see him so it doesn't matter.'

Neo Domino Park

James was seen dueling a kid that looked about twelve. James had Ultimate Tyranno on his field, along with the continuous spell card Big Evolution Pill while his opponent only had a tomato with a fiendish face on his field.

**Ultimate Tyranno: Lv.8 Atk-3000/ Def-2200**

**Mystic Tomato: Lv.4 Atk-1400/ Def-1100**

"Ultimate Tyranno, attack that excuse for a monster!" James ordered.

The large dinosaur ran towards the kid, trampling the tomato and pushing the boy back.

"Urgh." The boy grunted as his life points were depleted.

**Boy's LP: 1300 – 0**

**James' LP: 3100**

"Dammit!" the boy said as he deactivated his D-Pad. He removed his duel gazer and kept it in his pocket.

"Where's my card?" James asked the boy. He had walked up to the boy and his hand was stretched.

"What card?" the other boy asked with a puzzled expression.

"We made a deal before this duel started." James clenched his fist.

"I never agreed to that deal!" the boy said as he tried to run away.

However, James wasn't going to let him go. He grabbed the boy by his collar and asked him again, "I'll ask again, where is my card?"

"I never agreed to give you any card." The boy said, still resisting.

"Hey! James!" someone yelled. Seeing that James was distracted, the boy got away from James' hold. However James had grabbed a card from the boy's extra deck.

"Fairy Knight Ingunar." He said as he looked at the card. "It's good enough I guess."

Zero ran to the two boys, having being the one that shouted.

"Do I know you?" James asked Zero after pocketing the card.

Ignoring the question, Zero asked James, "Where have you been? Your sister has been looking for you."

"Oh yes, you're the counter boy in the card shop." James said, ignoring Zero. "As for your question, what does it look like I've been doing."

Zero sweatdropped and then thought, 'What kind of idiot ditches school for dueling.'

"Please help me get my card back." The boy said to Zero.

"That card is mine now." James said, glaring at the boy.

"Wait, have you been stealing other cards from duelists?" Zero asked.#

"No." James replied, smirking. "I've been winning cards from weak duelists like him."

"I disn't even bet my card." The boy said. Apparently the card meant a lot to him.

"Isn't using the ante rule illegal?" Zero asked.

"How would you know? Do you even duel?"

"I probably would if I had a deck." Zero replied.

"See." James retorted. "It weak people like you and florist boy over there that corrupt duel monsters."

'What the hell happened to him.' Zero thought. After thinking for some time he decided on what to do. "How about we duel?"

"A duel?" James said, smirking. "Don't make me laugh, I'll just end up having a landslide victory."

"Well, wouldn't you like that," Zero replied. "I'll even gamble an Evolzar Solda card."

"Sure, as long as you won't chicken out like the florist boy."

Zero smirked; he took the 'bait'. "But if I win, I'll get the card you took from the boy back."

"Fine, it's useless to me anyway."

Zero thought, if James' sister was here, she would probably start some stupid lecture about how 'no card is useless'. "We'll duel tomorrow after school, at the card shop. Just don't chicken out."

James chuckled then started leaving.

Zero turned to the boy, "DO you know the shop I'm talking about?"

"Yes, Tyler's World." The boy said.

'That name's so stupid.' He thought. "Just wait there tomorrow, I'll win your card for you."

Zero started to leave the park. 'I've got the perfect deck to use.' He thought, smirking evilly in his head.

'How the hell did I get myself into this.' Zero thought. He had left school an hour ago and was now the counter boy at the shop. He blamed the fact that he was helping some kid he didn't know on his uncle's 'preaching'.

Tomoko, Akiko and the boy whose card James took; Ron were in the shop waiting for James; apparently they were waiting for the duel to start.

James entered the shop with a smirk on his face. He was still in his school uniform. "I'm so ready to get my new Xyz monster." He said, directing the comment at Zero.

"We'll see about that." Zero said as he grabbed his grey D-Pad and D-gazer. He left the counter and stood opposite James.

"I won't be surprised if you made an anti-dinosaur deck just to duel me." James commented as he grabbed his D-Pad and D-Gazer from his bag. "That would show how weak and desperate you are."

"We'll know that when we duel, won't we." Zero said, bringing out a deck box from the pocket of the red hoodie he wore.

Both duelists activated their D-Gazers and Duel disks while those interested in watching activated their D-Gazers.

"DUEL!" both duelists said as the life point counter appeared.

**Zero's LP: 4000**

**James' LP: 4000**

"I'll take the first turn." Zero said as he drew a card from his deck. "It's been a long time since i dueled, give me a minute think."

Everyone sweatdropped, then James spoke, "And you hope to beat me."

"Just wait." Zero said, fiddling with the cards in his hand.

After what seemed like eternity, though it was precisely five minutes, Zero made a move.

"I'll start of by playing the spell card Gold Sarcophagus!"

"You FINALLY make a move." James comented.

A golden Egyptian sarcophagus appeared on the field because of the spell card. "This card lets me banish a card in my deck, and in my second standby phase after activating this spell, the banished card is added to my hand." Zero said as a card was placed into the sarcophagus. The sarcophagus was closed before it faded away.

"Why stop at one." Zero said as he inserted another card into his dueldisk. "I'll activate another Gold Sarcophagus." Another golden sarcophagus appeared and a card was placed in it. The sarcophagus closed and faded away like the first.

"Is this meant to help you in anyway?" James said.

"Just wait and see. In the mean time, I'll summon this guy." Zero placed a card on his duel disk, a fiendish looking monster wearing a cloak appeared on the field. The monster had a scythe swung on its back.

**Emmisary of the Afterlife: Lv.4 Atk-1600/ Def-600**

"I'll set this trap face-down and end my turn." Zero said as a reversed card appeared on his field.

"Does he even know how to duel?" Ron asked, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Akiko asked.

"He just told his opponent that he set a trap. Even a beginner doesn't do anything that stupid." Tomoko answered.

"If you can make stupid mistakes like that, then you have no chance of winning this duel. Draw!" James smirked as he viewed his hand; perfect, as usual. "I summon Rescue Rabbit in attack position." A grey and white rabbit appeared on the field.

**Rescue Rabbit: Lv.4 Atk-300/ Def-100**

Zero raised an eyebrow on seeing the monster. James smirked and went on with his turn. "I activate Rescue Rabbit's effect; by banishing it, i can special summon two level 4 or lower normal monsters with the same name from my deck. I'll special summon two Trakadon!" two purple dinosaurs with yellow markings on their bodies appeared.

**Trakadon: Lv.3 Atk-1300/ Def-800 *2**

"I overlay my two Level three Trakadon." The two monsters turned into orbs of light which went into a red portal that appeared. "With these two monsters I construct the overlay network! Xyz summon, Grenosaurus!"

The monster that came out of the portal was a large dinosaur which seemed to be fused with machines, fire came out of the dinosaur's eyes. Two orbs orbited around the monster.

**Grenosaurus: Rank.3 Atk-2000/ Def-1900 – 2 OLU**

"Grenosaurus, wipe that grim reaper wannabe off the field!" James ordered.

The mechanical dinosaur ran to the fiend and crushed the fiend with its teeth.

**Zero's LP: 4000 – 3600**

**James' LP: 4000**

"And that's not all," James smirked. "When Grenosaurus destroys a monster by battle; by using one overlay unit, I can deal 1000 points of damage to you!"

**Grenosaurus: Rank.3 Atk-2000/ Def-1900 – 2 - 1 OLU**

The dinosaur swallowed one of the orbs around it and the flames in its eyes flared up, burning Zero.

**Zero: 3600 – 2600**

**James: 4000**

"Still think you can defeat me?" James said laughing.

"If you're done gloating, the effect of my monster activates." Zero said. "When Emissary of the Afterlife is destroyed and sent to the grave, we both can add a level three or lower normal monster from our decks to our hand."

"I'll just add my last Trakadon to my hand." James muttered while Zero silently added a monster to his hand. After both decks were shuffled, James continued his turn. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." A reversed card appeared.

"I draw." Zero stated as he added a card to his hand. "I set a monster and a trap card and end my turn!" he said as a reversed monster card and a reversed trap appeared.

"You can't be serious!" Tomoko said in disbelief. "Nobody can make a mistake like that twice!"

"Well he did." Akiko commented. Meanwhile Ron was worried; Zero was meant to get his card back, but with the way things were going that wasn't going to happen.

"My turn, draw!" James drew a card. "I summon Trakadon in attack position." The purple dinosaur reappeared.

**Trakadon: Lv.3 Atk-1300/ Def-800**

"Grenosaurus, attack that facedown monster!"

The dinosaur ran towards the unknown monster and trampled it, but not before it was revealed to be a white, monkey like robot.

"Grenosaurus' effect activates." James smirked.

**Grenosaurus: Rank.3 Atk-2000/ Def-1900 – 1 - 0 OLU**

The dinosaur's ate the last orb and its flames washed over zero, damaging him.

**Zero's LP: 2600 – 1600**

**James' LP: 4000**

"Trakadon, attack this pathetic excuse for a duelist."

The purple dinosaur started to run towards Zero.

"I activate the spell card; Rush Recklessly!" James said as he inserted the card into his duel disk. Trakadon began to glow as its attack points were increased. "End this duel!"

**Trakadon: Lv.3 Atk-1300 – 2000/ Def-800**

"Trap card activate! Defense Draw! This card reduces the battle damage I would take to zero and allows me to draw a card." Zero explained as his face-down card rose up.

"Counter trap activate! Trap Jammer! This trap negates the effect of trap card that was activated during the battle phase and destroys it." James' facedown rose up.

"Counter trap! Seven Tools of the Bandit!" Zero's other face down activated. "By paying a thousand life points, I can negate the activation of your trap card and destroy it."

**Zero's LP: 1600 – 600**

**James' LP: 4000**

When the chain resolved, Zero's trap destroyed Trap Jammer, causing Defense Draw to work as normal.

"Does James always act like this?" Akiko asked Tomoko who was watching the duel.

"No. He started acting like this after he lost in the dueling tournament finals to one guy named Ray." Tomoko replied. "I tried talking him out of it, but it didn't work. I thought losing a duel would snap it out of him, but I don't think he'll be losing anytime soon."

"It doesn't help knowing that none of them have faith in me." Zero mumbled as he brushed his clothes. "But seriously, acting like this because he lost, what a sore loser. He's even starting to look like a jacka-" Zero stopped when he felt someone glaring at him. Looking around, he realised it was Tomoko. "There's no way she can hear me from over there."

"I end my turn." James said, disrupting Zero's mumbling.

"I draw." Zero said. "This is my second standby phase after activating Gold Sarcophagus, so the banished cards are added to my hand." The two golden sarcophagi appeared. The cards within them floated into Zero's hand before the sarcophagi faded away. "Hmmm, I'll summon Cyber Valley in attack position and end my turn." A serpentine like silver machine appeared.

**Cyber Valley: Lv.1 Atk-0/ Def-0**

"My turn, draw!" James said. "I activate the spell card Big Evolution Pill by tributing Trakadon."

The purple dinosaur faded away and a spell card depicting dinosaurs crowding around some bright coloured pills materialised on the field.

"This card stays on the field for three of your turns and as long as it is active, I can summon dinosaur-type monsters without tributing." James explained. "I'll use that effect to summon Dark Driceratops in attack position!" A brown dinosaur appeared on the field. This dinosaur had the features of a bird, for it had a beak and some feathers.

**Dark Driceratops: Lv.6 Atk-2400/ Def-1500**

"I hope you have my Evolzar Solda ready, because this duel is over! Grenosaurus, attack!"

The dinosaur ran towards the machine and tried to hit it, but the machine just vanished into thin air and Zero drew a card.

"What just happened?" James asked, puzzled as his dinosaur retreated.

"I activated the effect of my cyber valley. When cyber valley is attacked, its effect allows me to banish it, end the battle phase, and draw a card."

"Stall all you want, it won't change a thing." James said in frustration. "I set a card face-down and end my turn."

"I draw." Zero said, he stood there and stared at his hand. "Three." He whispered to himself.

"I have lost any hope of James losing this duel." Tomoko exclaimed.

"It's as if he isn't even trying to win." Akiko added.

"He's been summoning weak monsters since the duel began, I don't think he even has a winning image." Tomoko said.

Ron on the other hand still had little hope in Zero, "At least he knows how to keep a poker face."

"I don't think that's a poker face." Tomoko said.

"Why?" Akiko asked. "His face is basically devoid of any emotions."

"Please. In the rare times I see Zero, he's always had that same emotionless expression."

"Aren't you in the same class as him?" Akiko asked.

"Yes, he's not the most social person." She responded before taking her attention to the duel.

Taking his mind off the duel, Zero asked James a question, "Why are you taking cards from other duelists?"

"..."

"It's because Ray won against you flawlessly isn't it."

James gritted his teeth, Zero had guessed right.

"Typical tactic," Akiko remarked. "He's trying to reason with an opponent when he's going to lose."

"At least he's trying to snap James out of it." Tomoko said.

'How ungrateful,' Zero thought. He definitely wasn't deaf and had been hearing what the people he was meant to be helping were saying. Ignoring them, he continued talking, "Losing a duel doesn't make you a bad duelist."

"You wouldn't understand why that loss mattered." James responded, clenching his fist.

"So what, a loss just goes to show how weak you are."

Everyone sweatdropped and James' anger increased.

"Sorry, sorry, that came out wrong. I'm still new to this duel therapy stuff." Zero apologized, though his facial expression said otherwise. "So...um...let me rephrase that. What I meant to say was that losing a duel only reveals what aspects of your dueling need improvement."

"You know, why am I even listening to you? You're just a pathetic duelist who can't even damage my life points." James said angrily. "You can come and lecture me when you can win a duel."

"You know what, I'll do just that."

"What does he mean?" Ron asked.

"This is my last turn for this duel." Zero said as he grabbed a card from his hand. "Don't you think so?"

"Finally accepting defeat, eh?" James smirked.

"I summon this guy in attack position!" Zero slammed the card on his disk as the scythe wielding fiend appeared.

**Emissary of the Afterlife: Lv.4 Atk-1600/ Def-600**

"What's that pathetic monster gonna do?" James asked with an amused expression on his face.

"It's gonna help me win this duel! Emissary of the Afterlife, attack Grenosaurus!"

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" everyone else thought.

The fiend charged towards Grenosaurus and swung its scythe at the dinosaur. The dinosaur countered by ramming the fiend with its head and destroyed the fiend.

**Zero's LP: 600 – 200**

**James' LP: 4000**

"Upon its destruction, Emmisary of the Afterlife's effect activates; both of us can add a level 3 or lower normal monster from our decks to our hand, and then we both shuffle our decks."

"I don't have anymore." James frowned as his deck was shuffled by the duel disk's auto shuffle function.

Zero added a card to his hand, still maintaining his 'poker face'. He then continued with his turn, "I go to my main phase 2, where I'll activate the spell card Pot of Duality." A white jar with a face on it appeared. "With this spell card, I check the top three cards of my deck and add one of them to my hand, after that my deck is shuffled."

Large holograms of the cards appeared, the first was the trap card; Waboku, the second was a monster card; Right Arm of the Forbidden One, while the third one was another monster card; Battle Fader.

"No way!" James paled as he saw the second card. He just realised that Zero might have all the pieces in his hand.

"I obviously pick the second card." Zero said as the jar shattered. He added the card to his hand, smiling inwardly.

"What's so great about the card?" Akiko said as she noticed James' reaction.

"Yeah," Tomoko seconded that. "It's just a low level normal monster."

"Oh c'mon, don't you know about Exodia." Ron said, surprised that they didn't know that.

"Oh, Exodia!" Tomoko exclaimed as she remembered.

"Where you had to gather all the five pieces?" Akiko realised. "Do you think he has them all?"

Zero thought as five cards in his hand, 'This was so easy.'

"This duel is over! I have all five pieces of Exodia in my hand." Zero declared.

"When did you gather them all?" James asked.

"It was quite obvious, really." Zero said. "I used the gold sarcophagi to add two parts to my hand, the effect of the two Emissary of the Afterlife added the next two and Pot of Duality got me the last one."

James grits his teeth as the duel disk recognised his loss.

**Zero's LP: 200 – WINNER!**

**James' LP: 4000**

"Dammit." James said, punching the floor in anger. "I lost again, just like before!"

"Do you know the reason you lost?" Zero asked, removing his D-Gazer and duel disk.

"Yeah, you were just lucky!"

"Wrong. You lost because you underestimated me."

"What do you mean? If you didn't get the last piece of Exodia with Pot of Duality you would have lost." James retorted. "You were just lucky!"

"Luck is something duel monsters rely on -not that I needed it-. A loss is a loss and a win a win. If you didn't underestimate me and if you had thought carefully, you would have figured out my plan sooner and maybe had been able to stop it."

"What do you mean?" James asked as Tomoko, Akiko and Ron walked towards them.

"It was quite obvious I was tricking you. I mean seriously, I sit at the counter almost every day and I watch people duel, I 'mistakenly' told you I set traps facedown. It was obvious that I wanted to be seen as a weak duelist, it was just a ruse so that you would underestimate me and lose."

"What exactly is the point of this speech?" James asked.

"I'm just trying to tell you that every duelist lose, one loss doesn't mean you have to steal other duelist's cards."

James stood there silently, thinking about what Zero had said.

"I guess you're right." James said in a apologetic tone. "It's just that-"

"There's this important tournament coming up," Tomoko interrupted, sending James a glare. "Losing just probably made him think he wasn't a strong enough duelist."

"Right." Zero said raising an eyebrow. It was obvious the twins were hiding something, but that wasn't any of his business so he didn't bother about it.

"Thanks for helping us." Tomoko said to Zero.

"No problem." Zero replied. He then added in a sarcastic tone, "It felt good knowing I had people who didn't believe I would win."

The three spectators laughed sheepishly. James walked up to Ron and handed him his card back.

"Sorry for taking your card." James apologized.

"It's okay." Ron said as he took the card.

"I trust you're going to return every card you stole." Tomoko said sternly.

"I will." James answered. "And I didn't steal them, I won them."

"Whatever, just return them." Akiko said as the four left the shop.

"Thanks again." James added before walking off.

"Are those your friends?" Tyler asked his nephew as he watched the four leave.

"No." Zero answered. "Just some people who wanted to duel."

"Sure." Tyler said as Zero went back to being the counter boy.

'What an interesting bunch.' Tyler thought, he had been watching them since the duel started. 'I wonder if he'll ever take dueling seriously.' He gripped the envelope in his hand.

**Here's chapter 2! Leave a review if you find something you like or something to criticize.**


End file.
